Back-dating: Boulder County restoring 19th-century schoolhouse

Altona Schoolhouse at Heil Valley Ranch to offer window to the past

The calendar is being flipped way back in time on a property in northwest Boulder County, until it will read roughly 1880.

The exercise in time travel is underway in a rudimentary building that was among the structures on the 210-acre parcel known as the Heil Valley Ranch 2 acquired by Boulder County from the Heil family in 2012 for $6 million. That acquisition abuts the pre-existing, 5,020-acre Heil Valley Ranch open space, bought by the county between 1994 and 1996.

Denise Grimm, left, and Don Burd talk about the restoration before the tour at the Altona Schoolhouse on Saturday. Don Burd, Buildings and Historic Preservation Supervisor for Boulder County Parks and Open Space, and Carol Beam, Historic Preservation Specialist, led a tour for Boulder County Historic Preservation Board members of in-progress restoration work being done on the Altoona Schoolhouse, which dates back to the 1880. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

The building at 834 Lefthand Canyon Drive, which through painstaking restoration once again has a distinctly 19th-century feel, is the Altona Schoolhouse. It's a one-room sandstone structure where multiple generations of Boulder County children were grounded in the three R's from 1880 to about 1949. That's when the Heil family arrived from Sugar City in southeast Colorado and bought the land on which the District 22 schoolhouse stood.

Altona was a small community at the mouth of Lefthand Canyon, supporting the mountain mining operations at Utilla, Gold Hill and Gold Run, that was originally known as Ni-Wot. The community's name was changed to Altona to avoid confusing it with a railroad station to the east, at the present-day town of Niwot.

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Under the direction of Don Burd and Carol Beam, both of Boulder County Parks & Open Space, the one-room schoolhouse looks primed for the return of a black chalkboard, a wood stove and the 40-some students who used to squeeze in for 60 days of instruction a year, passed down by a teacher being paid $40 a month.

Perhaps by sometime in 2017, but maybe not until 2018, the restored schoolhouse will be ready to welcome visits by school groups, history buffs and others who want to step into an era increasingly accessed only through history books.

Beam, historic preservation specialist for Boulder County Parks & Open Space, said when she realized that the county now owned the schoolhouse — she had long eyed it with curiosity on trips up and down Lefthand Canyon Drive — it didn't take much thought to decide that the restoration should be pursued.

"I think it was just a natural," Beam said. "I think it was understood between Don and I. This was the right thing to do. It was a no-brainer.

"We were really enthusiastic about doing it, and we made it happen," said Burd, buildings and historic preservation specialist for Boulder County Parks & Open Space.

"We were really enthusiastic about doing it, and we made it happen," Don Burd, left, says of the Altona Schoolhouse. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

He added: "It's part of our heritage."

Smelling like salad

The 27-foot-by-21-foot building — originally valued at $650 — had hardly been untouched by time's passage. Most significantly, the Heils, who had used the structure as a home for one member of the family, built on two additions, added a handicapped-access ramp, an entrance vestibule and converted one of three windows on its west side into a doorway leading to one of the latter-day-additions.

Those additions have now been subtracted.

"We have stopped using the word demolition," Beam said. "We deconstruct and recycle."

Much of the material, including wood in the floor and glass in the windows, is, in fact, recycled. Attention has been paid to using older wood, where needed, due to the fact that wood from tree farms has wider rings, and wood with tighter rings is less prone to decay.

Restoring the walls, which had been painted at some point a variation of turquoise and marred by smoke over many years, posed a particular challenge.

"We washed all the walls with vinegar," Burd said. "We tried all kinds of solutions, but found that vinegar worked best. Everybody came back at the end of the day smelling like a salad."

A historical photo of the Altona Schoolhouse when it was in use, long before it was acquired in 1949 as part of a land purchase by the Heil family, who in 2012 sold the land to Boulder County. (Courtesy photo)

Other highlights included the discovery of a root cellar beneath the now-"deconstructed" western addition, which contained some 2,000 jars of various well-seasoned foodstuffs. After the addition was removed, and those containers were exposed to the sun, Burd said, "You could hear cans popping, and releasing a horrible smell."

Beam added: "It was fun to go in there." Her tone suggested that other adjectives might have been more fitting.

An historic landmark

Nearly all of the work to date has been carried out by a team of six full-time county staffers well-schooled in historical restoration, buttressed by four seasonal workers. Mitigation of asbestos, introduced into the property by way of the mid-20th century additions, had to be contracted out to specialists for about $18,950.

In all, Burd said the project to date has cost $55,140 over two years.

The schoolhouse and nearby outhouse were unanimously designated a Boulder County Historic Landmark in February 2013, their decision informed in part by an historical narrative prepared by Beam.

Beam's presentation cited a 1977 oral history from Hazel Faivre, born in 1902 and who was both a student and teacher there: Due to placement of a big stove at the front of the class, "the kids that sat in front would be so hot you couldn't stand it. And the ones in the back were freezing," that history stated.

Work still to be done at the Altona Schoolhouse before it's open to the public includes landscaping, installation of desks, a blackboard, a stove and construction of a new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant access ramp.

It's a labor of love for Beam and for Burd, whose department is responsible for 265 historical buildings and structures on county-owned open space.

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